India’s opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan is in the form of his life. Innings after innings, match after match, Dhawan is blasting Lankan bowlers all around the park and scoring big runs for his team.
Interestingly, Dhawan was not the part of India’s Test squad, but an injury to Murali Vijay forced the selectors to call him as his replacement. And, he made the most of that opportunity. In the Test series, Shikhar Dhawan was awarded man of the series, for scoring the most number of runs. And, he is continuing his good form in the ongoing ODI series.
In the first match of 5-match ODI series, Shikhar Dhawan batted brilliantly and scored his 11th ODI hundred. He looked in total control of his game right from the first delivery he faced to the last ball of the Indian innings.
He scored 132 unbeaten runs, including 20 fours and 3 sixes. And, he scored all these runs at a strike rate of 146.
After the innings, Dhawan said that he has been keeping things simple by focusing only on following the right process. He also said that “mental freedom” is allowing to express himself free in the middle. This is what he said:
“Things have been going well for me. I have only kept my focus on the processes and not on the results. The mental freedom helps me keep confidence in myself. You know that you have scored runs and can express yourself freely. I was just positive and was looking to score runs. I just wanted to play on the merit of the ball and keep my focus on,” Dhawan said after winning the Man of the Match award.
Indian captain Virat Kohli heaped praises on Dhawan and said he is cashing in on his purple patch.
“The last three months have been a great time for Dhawan and he’s cashing in on his purple patch. Hopefully he stays in this happy zone and we’ll make sure he stays there, because he will win you games as long he’s in it. Once he starts going, it’s very difficult to stop him,” Virat Kohli said in the post-match interview.
